This is all media hype: "The Aflockalypse doesn't signal the end of times," says Bryan Walsh in Time. There's a perfectly logical explanation for all the mass animal deaths — a fish kill in Florida was likely due to a winter cold snap; the Beebe blackbirds "suffered internal trauma," possibly due to a sudden storm. The breathless publicity "has more to do with the media than metaphysics" — once the media moves on, the fallen blackbirds will be forgotten "just like past sensational but evanescent stories like the Ground Zero mosque or the TSA pat downs.""Why the Aflockalypse is business as usual for biodiversity — and why that's not good"

It is all a coincidence, but a spooky one: Okay, so authorities can explain every mass animal death out there, says Faranaaz Parker in the Mail and Guardian. The Beebe blackbirds slammed into each other, or into trees, after being disoriented by fireworks or thunder, maybe. And the fish in the Arkansas River were probably killed by disease. You have to admit, even if you don't buy into conspiracy theories, "the coincidence makes for an eerie New Year story.""Of lightning probes and inexplicable bird deaths"